US actress Hayden Panettiere, best known for her roles in TV series Heroes and Nashville, has died at the age of 36.<\/p>\n
Her father Skip described her as an "incredible light and a force of nature" in a statement announcing her passing.<\/p>\n
Panettiere's career spanned three decades with a string of roles in other hit TV shows and films, including the Scream horror film franchise and romantic comedy Raising Helen.<\/p>\n
Panettiere with her parents and younger brother in 2007<\/p>\n
Born in August 1989, Panettiere was raised in Palisades, New York, by parents Lesley Vogel, an actress and producer, and Skip, a former firefighter.<\/p>\n
She had one brother, Jansen Panettiere, who died aged 28 in 2023.<\/p>\n
Beginning her career as a child actor, Hayden Panettiere was just four years old when she was cast on the popular US soap opera One Life to Live.<\/p>\n
On The Tonight Show with Jay Leno as a seven-year-old<\/p>\n
Her credits from the late 1990s and early 2000s also included roles in the animated film A Bug's Life, as well as TV shows Ally McBeal and Malcolm in the Middle.<\/p>\n
She starred alongside Kate Hudson in the 2004 film Raising Helen and was beloved by a generation of fans for playing Britney Allen in teen cheerleading movie Bring It On: All or Nothing in 2006.<\/p>\n
On the red carpet with actress Kate Hudson in 2004<\/p>\n
Panettiere's big career breakthrough was in 2006<\/p>\n
Her big breakthrough came the same year, when she was cast as another cheerleader – this time with the power of rapid cellular regeneration – in the highly popular sci-fi series Heroes.<\/p>\n
The show ran until 2010 and earned a number of awards and nominations, including Emmys and Golden Globes.<\/p>\n
Panettiere played Claire Bennet, a cheerleader with healing powers, in Heroes<\/p>\n